Put Up Your Dukes!

The older Brian gets, the more real parenting seems to become for me. It is so easy to protect your kids when they are babies.  Other babies can't really be "mean" to yours because they are so limited on what they are able to do.  They can't say mean words or reject them.  They may grab a toy out of your baby's hand, but babies are oblivious to that kind of stuff.  But then they get a little older and you start to see the sinful human nature coming out in those once innocent babies.  And sometimes it's even YOUR precious baby that shows that side (what? NEVER! Ha!).  But it still hurts.  It makes you sad when you see your child discovering the ugliness of the world.  The first time they get rejected on the playground.  Or someone says something that hurts their feelings.  With me, it makes the Mama Bear in me come out and want to attack and scoop him up and take him somewhere far away!

Brian is such a social kid.  Always has been.  He is always joyful, always eager to talk to people.  He wants to be friends with everyone.  He will go up, introduce himself and want to know your name.  Unfortunately with this being his first year of school, he is learning that not everyone is that same way that he is.  And mama is learning this too.  I have never seen Brian shy away from playing or talking to ANY other kid. Yet I have seen him so excited to see one of his classmates outside of school only to get a cold response because they are with a group of big kids and are too cool to be talking to Brian.  I also know that a lot of kids are on the shy side at this age (I was one of them) and it might be a little uncomfortable for them to have this bubbling ball of friendliness come bouncing up to them.    I have especially noticed this because Brian is so young compared to most of the kids in his class.  It is so obvious at this age what several months difference is like in the social realm of kiddos.  I have even noticed on field trips that there seem to be "cliques" of boys already!  That is crazy to me!  Especially with boys!  But good grief it makes me mad when that happens.  In my mind, he should have at least a few years before having to deal with this kind of stuff.  But I know things are different in today's world.  And the sad thing is, he is going to deal with that for the rest of his life.  There are going to be some kids who don't want to play with him.  There are going to be kids who don't like his style and don't respond to his friendliness in the way I think they should.  But you know what?  I am going to try my very hardest to build my son up to be confident enough in himself and who God made him that it won't bring him down. I don't want him to change a thing about the way he does things now at 4 years old.  You know why?  Because it just might be Brian who walks up to that shy kid (like I used to be) that has no one and says "Hi, I'm Brian George.  What's your name?"  and turns that kid's day around.  Or God may use his always bright and cheerful attitude to lift someone's spirits who has had a bad day.  Or is just that smiling face that you can always count on to be consistently nice to you.  I'm sure that as Brian gets older, he will start to catch on to those differences in people and may change his approach a little, but I never want him to stop being who he is.

Does it make me want to put on the gloves and start taking names when I feel like my son is being mistreated?  Heck yes!  But I know we have all been guilty at some point in being that way, myself and Brian included.   And even though experiencing the ugliness of this world is inevitable, it doesn't have to change you. It doesn't have to bring you down.  It can be a way to teach your children how to handle it the way Jesus would.  And it can also be a way to calm a mama down and make her realize that Jesus wouldn't put on boxing gloves and start taking names.  Especially with preschoolers :)